Harry Pahanyaila: “New decree is economic slipknot round neck of public associations”
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12:18, — Politics
“It is another economic slipknot round the neck of public associations. It will be hard to contest this degree someway,” Harry Pahanyaila, lawyer of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, said commenting on Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s decree No 533.
The presidential decree No 533 of 23 October 2007 came into force on 24 April. According to the decree, reduction of rental rate factors is to be cancelled for most public organisations.
According to the document, since April 2008 reduction of rental rate factors for rented state-owned premises at the rate of 0.1 will be applied only to non-commercial organisations, engaging in humanitarian activity; organising child sporting groups, child theatres, studios, dance and literature collectives; for individual entrepreneurs and organisations, if the number of disabled people working on the rented premises is at least 50 per cent of the total number of employees; for creative unions for arranging workshops, galleries, showrooms, studios, up to 100 sq meters of normalised space.
Other public organisations in Minsk will pay rent at the rate of 10 euro per 1 sq m instead of 1 euro.
As Harry Pahanyaila, lawyer of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, said to BelaPAN, most organisations would consider such rent rates to be impossibly high. “It’s hard to find such enormous facilities for office services, if one doesn’t carry on business,” he noted.
“It is another economic slipknot round the neck of public associations. It will be hard to contest this degree someway, because the Constitutional, Supreme or Supreme Economic Courts don’t note such claims, as a rule,” the lawyer said.
“Of course, some organisations can preserve privileged factors, if their activities allow them to preserve the old rental rate. But only the governmental bodies will decide who may continue to use privileged rental rate,” H. Pahanyaila noted.
